Game Overview:

Background:
Quantum gate technology - which prevents electronics from functioning in a large area - divided society into two distinct technological geographies.
Spacer/Gatekeeper zones lacked electronics and were located a safe distance away from the Electric zones.
Hydrogen burning steam engine transports carried cargo and people between planetary zones.
Our Spacer ancestors arrived here with no electronic equipment and all gate connections suddenly severed.

Goal:
Gain control of the Singularity so escape can be accomplished.

Winning

Controlling 25 or more of the 37 planets at the beginning of 3 successive turns is a win for a single player.

Factions:A winning faction may consist of 2 or 3 players in a 6 player game and 2 players in a 4 or 5 player game.
A faction is formed by declaration at the beginning of a turn where the faction holds 25 or more planets.
A faction must meet alliance requirements and hold 25 or more planets at the beginning of the following 2 turns to win.
A faction dissolves if required alliances are missing or the faction holds 24 or fewer planets at the beginning of a turn.

A 2 player faction consists of 2 players allied with each other and may be declared by either member.
A standard 3 player faction (with all members allied with all other members) may be declared by any member.
An empire faction is formed with a dominant player and 2 allies even if those allies are not allied with each other.
--- Only the dominant player may declare the empire and must control at least 13 planets by them self.
----- Empires additionally dissolve if a turn begins with 2 members not mutually allied and the dominant member below 13 planets.

Alliances are more a non-aggression pact between 2 players than a true alliance
- An ally cannot take your planet and might prevent someone else from taking it just by being there but might keep you from taking a planet just by being there.- They know way too much about where you have your forces and depending on house rules might turn on you at the end of any turn.Alliances may overlap.

Information is limited. Everyone can see the ownership and color of all planets.
--- You can see some information on another player's ships in the same space as your ships (id, type, and damage total).
You can see the location of all allied fleets but not any details on what or how many ships.
---Dark ships can be seen only by the player they belong to and do not provide any sensor information to that player.
Planets themselves provide no sensor information.
--- Ships can detect the presence of "unknown ships" in adjacent spaces and some have a 2 space sensor range.
--- Combat reports go to all players with a non-dark ship in the combat space during combat.

House Rules:
The game enforces mechanics only and is open to house rules for victory conditions, faction requirements, use of alliances, and information sharing.

Turn Summary:

(A) Economic - collect points and spend them on builds and repairs and maintenance
all players submit orders then information updates for the next section

(B) Movement - any mobile ships can be moved - enemy stationary ships might interrupt moves
all players submit orders then information updates for the next section

(C) Combat - all enemy ship same space encounters continue combat rounds until no further combat is possible
after all combat is completed planet ownership changes are processed and information is updated for the final section

(D) Ecopolitical - planets change colors and alliance settings are submitted
negotiate and submit desired alliance settings - after all submit the information updates and the next turn begins

The Display

Top of Page
The game board with planets and ownerships is a background image with a transparent overlay for each of the 19 levels plus a combined strategic overlay.
Markers are positioned on the overlays for fleets and sensor data. Level select buttons and summary markers are to the right of the board. The order Entry/Results panel is to the right of that.
The ❎ just left of Economic Points is a link to the Lobby page.

Detailed Rules: the long winded with a whole bunch of pictures version

At the beginning of the game each player holds 1 planet (the color coded space) and has 5 points.

Each turn consists of 4 main sections.All players submit complete orders for each section and then all orders are processed at the same time.In the case of combat, a new combat round with new odds etc. will begin as long as any possible combats remain.

Tech note: A buffer is used to store encoded orders until you transmit them - clear this buffer by reloading the page - you can transmit partial orders and still continue.Combat is a
store then transmit for each location step-thru process each round.

A - Economic (MAINTENANCE and CONSTRUCTION)

--followed by scrap orders (ships not scrapped cost 1 point each to maintain),

--then repair orders (1 point repairs 1 point damage) as desired and you can afford,

--then you can order any ships not being repaired to hide (damage the ship system to go dark - dark ships are out of play until repaired but must be maintained),

--and finally any build orders are submitted - can build at any owned planet - unused points are saved

All ships also have a system unit - if damaged the ship goes dark.
All non-dark ships have a sensor range of 1 space.
Only ships can see or detect other ships. Planets are blind.

A sensor unit gives a 2 space sensor range instead of just a single space.
Multifire (fire multi) allows 1 shot per weapon instead of just a single shot.
A Terraformer must have undamaged terraforming to change a planet's color.
Slip and Jump are required for slipstream and jump movement.
Drive determines number of warps and/or jumps and slipstream range.
Weapons determine odds in combat and also affect multifire shots.
Armor must be gone before other units are damaged in combat.

When the final orders are transmitted all are processed and maps and paperwork update with the new information.
===================================================================================================================================Auto mode:

When final player finishes submitting orders and triggers order processing, that player will then see the following result or action panel.
All other player displays will advance from WAITING ON OPPONENTS to the following result or action panel on their next page access or reload.
When you are WAITING ON OPPONENTS the blank black button (below the transmit buttons) will change to an Activate Auto Mode button.
Auto Mode is automatic page reload every 10 seconds while still WAITING ON OPPONENTS.

B - Movement

Moves are ordered as a series of segments. An encounter with a stationary non-allied ship at the end of any segment ends movement for that ship.--Ships already in an encounter cannot move. Ships that have no drive units cannot move. Ships that do not move are stationary. --If a ship is ordered to move with no change in position it is still "moving" rather than stationary.Dark ships (hidden, damaged system) cannot move but are dark rather than stationary.

Drive units - Each drive unit can power 1 jump or 1 warp. Slipstream range is 1 space per drive unit - a ship uses slipstream as the first move segment followed by any warp segments. Ships with jump drives can order any mixture of warps and jumps.

A Jump from any space moves to a fixed (randomly predetermined for each war and location) space and lists the jump in your charts. Jumps are one way, not reciprocal. The space you jump into has its own jump outof destination.
The ❎ just left of Economic Points is a link to the Lobby page.

When all players have entered final move orders the moves are processed and the Navigation Log will display.

The Navigation Log will be blank if no ships moved.If a ship attempts to move off the map that move will show Invalid in the log and movement ends.--- vertical levels of map go from -9 to 9If a ship encounters a Stationary non-Dark enemy ship that move will show Static Encounter and movement ends.Combat begins when final player is finished with the Navigation Log.

C - Combat

You attack with the combined weapons power of all your target's enemies and defend with all the weapons power of your attacker's enemies that are present in a combat. Attacker enemies AE and target enemies TE with chance to hit as TE / (AE+TE).

The number of shots you fire depend on your ships and can be allocated among any available targets. All shots must be fired.

Each ship that has a weapon gets 1 shot. A cruiser or basestar with undamaged multifire gets 1 shot per weapon unit (these are the only ships with more than 1 weapon unit).

Shots that hit damage armor first and after any armor is reduced to 0 damage a random remaining unit on the target ship. All damage is applied each round. Each hit removes a unit from the target ship so the next hit removes one of the remaining units.A drive of 2 is actually 2 drive units with weapons and armor being similar while system, sensors, and such are all single units. 1 hit = 1 point damage = 1 unit taken out.

All ships have a system unit and if it is damaged the ship goes Dark and vanishes to all other players until repaired. This is same as hiding a ship during the economic portion of the turn and is an Achilles' heel for all ships.

(If weapons and drive both reach 0 the ship is destroyed and vanishes.)

Damaged multifire limits number of shots that ship can make to 1 per round instead of 1 per weapon.

If weapons are reduced to 0 a ship becomes just another target and cannot fire any shots.

Other units are non-combat capabilities: Slip and Jump units, Sensor unit which extends sensor range by 1 space, Drive units that can keep a weaponless ship still around as a target but have no other combat effect, and Terraforming units which determine whether a Terraformer that remained stationary can change a planet's color. In combat these units give the important units things to hide out amongst.

After all players have transmitted orders for all ongoing combats, combat is resolved and reports generated.

On the first combat round all players with non-Dark ships in a combat space with enemy non-Dark ships will see firing options.
On successive rounds players with 0 shots at enemies will not see firing options.

Combat reports are generated at end of each round for players who had a non-Dark ship in the combat space regardless of combat participation.
After all reports are seen the round is complete and either another round or ownership come next.

After each combat round a new combat round will begin as long as possible combats remain.
When no combats remain planet ownerships will update for the final section of the turn.

Planet ownerships change according to ship locations and weapon strengths. A weapon strength of more than 0 is required to take over a planet. Dark ships do not count.

Unowned - goes to highest weapon total or nobody if a tie.

Owned - goes to highest enemy if not a tie, unchanged if ally or owner is highest or tied for highest, becomes unowned if enemies are tied for highest.

D - EcoPolitical

Terraforming:

Every owned planet where the owner has a stationary (did not move this turn) terraformer with an undamaged terraforming unit will change color 1 step closer to the owner's color if not already matching.

Terraforming is automatic to go from 2 to 3 points (that would be going gray) and from 4 to 5 points (your own color).Where you have a choice of 2 colors (the 2 point and the 4 point colors) you can pick either one.

Alliance Settings:

Each player submits alliance settings as a yes/no for each other player. If 2 players have each other set as yes they are allies for the following turn. If either has the other set as no then they are not allies.

The alliance setting options appear with current alliances already set to yes.

After all players transmit alliance settings actual alliances are determined, information updated, and the next turn begins

Allies do not fire at each other in combat and they do not add to enemies weapon factor in combat calculations.
A stationary ally will not interrupt movement. Ally fleet locations show on the game map (but not Dark ships).

Dark ships that survive combat can be repaired to pin the other fleet in place. An annoying strategic/tactical trick that deserves mention.

Map Tokens

Game Setup - Starting a War

Whoever knows the Mod password creates a war. When all done fighting a war the Mod can delete it. Mod can also resign a player from a war.

Players join the war (select war, select color, and make a password) which puts them on the player lobby page logged in - they can make a shortcut to the lobby page already logged into the war.

The player lobby page can open chat in a new tab. You enter the game (the map page) from the lobby and e❎it the game to the lobby. A player can resign themselves from a war on the lobby page.

👩🐧👾👮

Those pictures up above are HTML character codes displayed in a 20px font-size.
If you see them as black on grey (text color on background) you might be using Explorer as a browser. Firefox users see pretty colors.HTML character codes can be used in the Chat / Message board in the game. - see websitebuilders.com/tools/html-codes for codes.
But it sure looks better in Firefox than it does in Explorer for the character codes with built-in colors.